Time Out

County Councilmember Karen Toles Fights for Crisis Leave for Battered Women Nov. 14

By Raoul Dennis

According to Councilmember Karen Toles (D-Dist. 7), women need a day off.

County Councilmember Karen Toles (D-Dist. 7)

More specifically, she’s fighting to push forward a bill that would allow battered women the right to take a day off from work in order to initiate the appropriate procedures at the county courthouse.

“Some people work hourly, some people don’t have leave, some have day care issues. If they don’t work, they don’t get paid. And just because they need to work doesn’t mean they need to die.” 

The veteran councilmember says that many women cannot protect themselves from abusive partners if they can’t take off from work to get documents filed.

“We are a working class county,” she says. “We have to take into consideration that not everybody has a ‘good government job.’ They need to be able to get a restraining order if their health and welfare is at stake.”

It will allow victims who may need a protective order or mental evaluation the opportunity to handle those affairs.

Toles will host a Public Hearing on CB- 87 Sick and Safe Leave scheduled on Nov. 14, at 10 a.m.

The proposed bill will require certain employers in the county to provide earned sick and safe leave to county employees due to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.

Toles put the bill in the process in January.